Picardy

Picardy is a historical region of northern France, with Amiens as its capital. The region, which merged into Hauts-de-France in January 2016, used to stretch from Noyon to Calais along the Somme River, and the region was the center of the Jacquerie peasant revolt of 1358 during the Hundred Years' War. In 1419, Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy acquired Picardy from the Kingdom of France, but Louis XI of France reconquered Picardy in 1477. In 1557, during the Italian Wars, the Habsburg army of Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy ravaged St. Quentin and burnt  Noyon to the ground. Under Napoleon I, the sugar beet industry grew in the region in response to the United Kingdom's seizure of the French colonies in the Caribbean, and the sugar business dominated the economy of Picardy for centuries. In 2007, Picardy had a population of 1,890,000 people.